Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Still Awaiting That Chaos

And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge, With Ate by his side come hot from hell, Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war; That this foul deed shall smell above the earth With carrion men, groaning for burial.

So predicted Anthony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

Back here in gay-marriage land, the predictions of ruin just won't stop. Even today, the shameless fear and contribution raising anti-gay and anti-marriage equality bozos were right back at it.

You can search this blog or MassResistance Watch, for the many times the Henny Penny types predicted chaos, disaster, havoc, misery, and economic decline for Massachusetts. Like true effete failures, they never accepted responsibility or apologized when they were wrong, dead wrong, totally wrong. Instead, they turned immediately to the just-you-wait-and-see posture.

Well, today, the Massachusetts Senate finally, belatedly voted to repeal the shameful 1913 law set that forbids out-of-state couples from marrying here if their home state(s) laws do not allow same-sex marriage. There's little reason to suppose that the House won't follow suit Wednesday or Thursday. Today's voice vote was with no opposition voiced.

We need look no farther than the Massachusetts Family Institute response to see what a thin garment they wear. Cynics seem to have a convincing argument that the only reason beyond their practiced bigotry that they keep at it is fund-raising for self-perpetuation.

Consider among today's comments (in italics):

(T)he Massachusetts Senate is inviting court challenges to the marriage laws of other states. Wolf, wolf, wolf. Not only is that not what marrying homosexual couples are about, but it hasn't happened in the past four years. Moreover, the unrestricted marriage laws of much larger California make Massachusetts small beer at this bar.

"The Massachusetts Senate has no right to infringe on the internal issues of how other states define marriage but that's exactly what they voted today to do," said Kris Mineau, president, Massachusetts Family Institute. Our marriage laws cannot dictate to any state what it does. Most have laws and/or amendments forbidding SSM. Our choice is not their choice and vice versa.

"The express purpose of the 1913 law was to create uniform marriage standards and respect states rights, but the state senate has now reneged on that principal." That's crazy talk. The aim was to placate racist states even though we allowed interracial marriage. We have been the only state unilaterally accommodating the bigotry of others. We've been a legal and marital joke for nearly a century. We saw it in spades in this century with how few states make any provision at all for our SSMs.

MFI expects to see an explosion of costly lawsuits causing a boon for trial lawyers if out-of-state couples come here to marry and go home to sue their state for recognition. More crying wolf here. They and others predicted the same if we legalized SSM. There are many lawyers staying wealthy -- with different-sex divorces instead. Most money being spent on suits is by anti-equality types fighting the inevitable and desirable outcomes.

If approved by the House, the repeal of the 1913 law would substantiate the absolute necessity for a federal marriage amendment.That could let such groups raise more money from the confused and gullible for a few more years. Even the Mineau sorts know Congress doesn't have the belly to wade into these waters, particularly to take away the right of states to regulate within their borders. I'm sure we can count on the anti-equality forces to stay as effective as they have been in stifling equality. It is to laugh.

That anyone would continue to donate to these false prophets is astonishing. It is a stark reminder how socially conservative we are among the industrialized nations. Apparently, we'll limp in, slowly, behind many other nations on this area of equality too. Yet, doesn't it seem though that the MFI and similar folk would eventually say how wrong they've been...about everything?Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, doomsday, slippery slope, false prophets